


Princess Leia and Sabine Wren: THE FAKE DATING AU (But Also Arranged Marriage AU)

by formerlydf, reena_jenkins



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, F/F, Fake Dating, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Feelings, It's like "Ghost" but Luke is Whoopi Goldberg, Marriange Because The Empire Is A Dick, Meet the Family, Multi-voice Podfic, Mutual Pining, Oral Notfic, Pining, Podfic, Podfic Collaboration, Political Marriage, Requited Love, Space family, Unrequited Love, but there's a wedding!, gratuitous rewriting of the end of the war, political arrangements, so it's okay, spoilers for Leia Organa: Princess of Alderaan, spoilers for Rebels - Sabine's backstory, spoilers for Rebels series finale, warning for canonical planet-wide mass death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-18 12:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16118144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/formerlydf/pseuds/formerlydf, https://archiveofourown.org/users/reena_jenkins/pseuds/reena_jenkins
Summary: Sabine is a cousin to the last remaining rule of Mandalore. Leia is Her Royal Highness Princess of Alderaan, and therefore kind of a big deal. The Empire is looming over both their planet's heads. The best solution, for interplanetary diplomatic reasons? Arranged marriage. Somehow. It's complicated. [Oral notfic.]





	Princess Leia and Sabine Wren: THE FAKE DATING AU (But Also Arranged Marriage AU)

 

 **Coverartist:**    [ **reena_jenkins**  ](https://reena-jenkins.dreamwidth.org/)  
****

**Warnings:** oral notfic, Podfic Collaboration, Multi-Voice Podfic, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fake Dating, Arranged Marriage, Political Marriage, political arrangements, Marriange Because The Empire Is A Dick, Feelings, Unrequited Love, Requited Love, Pining, Mutual Pining, Meet the Family, Space Family, It's like "Ghost" but Luke is Whoopi Goldberg, gratuitous rewriting of the end of the war, spoilers for Rebels series finale, spoilers for Rebels - Sabine's backstory, spoilers for Leia Organa: Princess of Alderaan, warning for canonical planet-wide mass death, but there's a wedding! so it's okay, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence

 **Music:** [Cut To The Feeling](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlsu7RhOnsQ), as performed by Carly Rae Jepson  
****

**Length:**  01:09:20

 **Download Link:**  You can download this podfic as an mp3 [ **right over here**](http://reena.parakaproductions.com/podfics/\(SW\)%20_Princess%20Leia%20and%20Sabine%20Wren_%20THE%20FAKE%20DATING%20AU%20\(But%20Also%20Arranged%20Marriage%20AU\)_.mp3) (thanks for hosting us, [](https://paraka.dreamwidth.org/profile)[ **paraka**](https://paraka.dreamwidth.org/))

 

 

 - A SYNOPSIS, NOTFIC STYLE - 

  

Pre-destruction of Alderaan, a senatorial aide Leia Organa & imperial academy Sabine Wren are forcibly engaged by the Empire

Leia is royalty, Sabine is a cousin to the last of House Kryze, and the Empire wants to get hooks into both of their governments.

Sabine would have been kicked out of Imperial Academy, if she didn't do this - her family is held hostage to her good behavior in this regard. Moff Tarkin is an asshole and threatens her dad, too.

Bail has been nearly caught on one too many "relief missions gone wrong", so he and Breha can't put up a fuss or object

Bail manages to push the wedding off til the girls are 25. Fucking Tarkin is ominously pleased about the long engagement

The Empire is hoping to get spies on Mandalore to complete the takeover. The Empire is also hoping for spies on Alderaan. Breha subverts this by way of wedding planning - let's introduce Mandalorian malcontents to some Rebelliom agents at the cake tasting!

In Leia's timeline: the engagement happens just after events in "Leia Organa: Princess of Alderaan", where Leia bullheads her way into learning about the Rebellion, and her parents' place in it. As such, Alderaan spins the engagement as 'settling down' for Leia (it helps with her cover)

So: Leia doesn't know if she can trust Sabine with info about the Rebellion, because her parents were Death Watch... And Sabine has to keep her growing anti-Imperial sentiments under wraps, because Alderaan is ~traditionalist and Leia is a member of the Imperial Senate.

Leia thought she might have a political marriage, but never an Imperial Order. Breha thought Leia's first love "would be a scoundrel." (Sorry, Han - you have to stay with Lando and Qi'ra, in this 'verse)

Sabine's growing rebel sentiment meets Leia "personality to bend kyber crystal around" Organa: while Leia is serving as an Imperial senator and Sabine has to take her Imperial final exams, there IS a penpals-over-the-holonet, getting-to-know-you montage.

The empire backs off pressuring sabine to design weapons because she's aligned with Alderaan, who are loudly pacifist.....for a time.

So Sabine fakes her death.

She can’t run away, because that would implicate Alderaan - and Sabine cares enough about Leia to not want her planet penalized. Also the Wrens would be targeted by the empire in retaliation of sabine's defection - but if she's dead, no-one gets punished.

So Sabine fakes her death, and that's how she gets picked up by the crew of the Ghost.

Later, Leia hooks up with the Ghost through the rebellion. The reunion consists of both Leia and Sabine going WHAT THE FUCK.

> RJ: we could do that....or we can make it MORE painful
> 
> DF: how could you make it more painful than "the person i was starting to like is dead"??
> 
> RJ: in canon, the first time leia interacts with the ghost, alderaan still exists. WHAT IF
> 
> RJ: Leia doesn’t catch up with Sabine until after luke & han have rescued her from the death star?
> 
> DF: What the FUCK

Because then, all that would be left of alderann is ~2000 alderaanians who were on vacation off-planet, and general Reikan, who is a staunch monarchist.

And it was IN THE PAPERS, that princess organa was ENGAGED to sabine wren.

And he's like, "we may not have a planet, we may not have a monarchy, but gosh darnit we will HAVE A WEDDING."

But also her entire planet's dead.

> DF: what the fuck
> 
> DF: WHAT THE FUCK
> 
> RJ: Is that....not the AU you going to?

General Reikan -"we have to preserve what's left of our culture in these Trying Times, and how else can we do that than by clinging to the last official merging of house organan? Plus mandalore's still around, so they can pay for the bill."

Though there's no political point to it (no need to placate the emperor if you're both rebels on his to-kill list), the engagement WAS until the girls were 25. So maybe general reikan is willing to put things off a bit (until after the empire has fallen), but then....well. It's Symbolic, especially if they want to found a New Republic and a New Alderaan. New Alderaan will need a rallying point (leia) and allies (sabine & mandalore)

OR

IN A LESS TRAGIC VERSION

Leia meets up with the ghost/sabine BEFORE the death star, and stows away on the ghost because her girlfriend is still alive.

> DF: I mean......in the version where she stows away on the ghost, it's not like Leia's planet wont EVENTUALLY go kaput.
> 
> RJ: but if leia's in regular contact with the ghost, then maybe sabine RESCUES her before Fucking Tarkin fires the death star. And if she's not on the death star, Fucking Tarkin would chase her….and not fire on alderaan
> 
> DF: did you just propose, like, a quasi-happy version of a thing? I don't think this has ever happened before.

also - imagine all the ways this would make sabine cringe? She thought she'd gotten past her imperial weapons days

Cut to: post-reunion, everyone on the ghost would be INSUFFERABLE.

Ezra would be the tiniest fucking nightmare - "are you hitting on my girlfriend?" "I'M SORRY, are you referrring to my FIANCE as your girlfriend?"

Hera would be mostly chill, but occasionally hum the wedding march because she's a troll

Zeb is terrible. He would be every Terrifying Big Brother sterotype

Leia is used to being the one who's family does the grilling, but on the Ghost, Zeb is all shotgun wedding (at the end of a bo-rifle). My Time Has Come.

Leia says, “Draw me like one of your twi'lek girls”….. And hera's RIGHT THERE.

> (At this point, DF wants to throw something at me)

Flash back to: FAKE DATING

they are on coruscant/imperial city, and Sabine&Leia have to go to FORMAL FUNCTIONS. In FANCY CLOTHES. Sabine's like, "the height of mandalorian couture is bespoke armor." And Leia's like, FLOATY WHITE DRESS TIME, the opposite of Sabine's outfit.

The Emperor is getting grumpy that his scheme is not paying off - Alderaan is still running 'mercy missions', madalore is growing more & more dissentive. So the crackdown is that Leia & Sabine have to go to events together. And DANCE.

They're 16-17, and have to act like they're Embarrassingly Into Each Other in order to not arouse suspicion.

There is a CHAPERONE. She *might* be loyal to Alderaan, but then again, the emperor is good at getting spies in places - so the girls have to keep up the charade.

They go on LATE-NIGHT JOY RIDES. Leia flirts with Sabine by way of adrenaline.

There are JETPACKS. Sabine teaches leia to fly, and she does the arms-around-you

thing.

Sabine paints bits that remind her of Leia while she's on the run/faking her death. It's definitely not on purpose or because she misses her girlfriend. Nope, no pining there.

Leia is force sensitive. Does this make sabine hate her, because madalore hates jedi? Eh, probably not.....because leia's not a jedi

Digression to shoot down my Princess Leia As An Inquisitor AU (even though it would be terrible and i would love it so much)

INTERGALACTIC WEDDINGS

Befores Sabine fakes her death, there's an Event that requires full ceremonial guard (and also an imperial tax)

-there is "i have to kiss the girl-i want to kiss the girl-i cant want it to much the emperor is watching"

Bonding in the blaster range (possibly when they reunite?)

\- the last time leia shot someone was on the death star

\- sabine DOES THE ARM THING AGAIN

then shit happens

And they both still think they're faking the relationship (for the remaining alderaanian people, for sabine's family) - but each girl has developed Feelings for her fiance. Except that they cannot TELL EACH OTHER, because they each think the other one's STILL FAKING

UNRECIPROCATED PINING ON BOTH SIDES

One girl is self-sacrificing - "should i find a way to break the engagement that legally speaking is still hanging over our heads, even though the empire is gone?"

Does sabine try to back out because se thinks leia has a CONNECTION WITH LUKE??

In a post-alderaan reunion 'verse, the ghost crew still works with the rebellion.....which means Han and Luke will meet the ghost crew.

It's like meeting the in-laws

Hera tries to give han a compliment on 'achieving so much with such a limited budget' and han gets MAD because he thinks she's talking shit

He spends the whole time trying to one-up the ghost

R2 and chopper get along great, because sweary angry droids

C3P0 and chopper's asshole friend are both fatalists, and make each other worse

Everyone on the ghost is sad to meet luke, because kanan and ezra aren’t there. And they would have LOVED to meet another force user who isn’t trying to kill them. And ezra is the same age as luke

The worst part about it is that luke gets to see his dead jedi person as a force ghost, and hera DOESN’T

Although...... What if kanan IS there, and hera just can’t hear him?

Accidental voyeristic threesome, y/y?

Once hera knows kanan's there, she's like.....welp, gonna give my boyfriend a show.

Luke's the only one who can tell hera what kanan's doing in response to her putting on a show

It's like Ghost! IT'S LIKE GHOST BUT LUKE IS WHOOPI GOLDBERG!

and sometimes hera just needs some time in her bunk, so she's narrating to invisible kanan. And kanan's projecting his feelings into the force. And luke & leia KEEP PICKING UP ON IT

Maybe that's how they figure out that leia’s force-sensitive

Maybe some kind of crystal situation shenanigans, so that hera can see kanan?

OR

Force-sensative kyber crystal dildo. With haptic feedback.

> (at this point, DF *does* throw something at me)

The ghost's force ghost is WAY MORE HELPFUL than luke's force ghost. Kanan is so much more helpful than ghost obi-wan.

When kanan finally meets obi-wan in the force - kanan being Unimpressed with obi-wan. Your beard is disheveld and you smell like bantha poop.

Sadly, kanan never lived long enough to reach the natural jedi life stage of becoming a cave-dwelling hermit.

Meet The Family Situation: both sides of the family have heard that the sabine/leia engagement was imperial command & not voluntary, but they can ALL see that leia & sabine have feelings for each other. So THE FAMILY TRIES TO MATCHMAKE THEM WITH EACH OTHER.

Brief interlude to discuss how in star wars, if you don’t see the body then they're not really dead.

Also, on some planets on the outer rim, if leia looks up, alderaan is still there.

> DF: no-one gets to be happy in star wars, especially not me.

Cut to: current rebellion era when the entire Rebellion - including shara bey & kes dameron - conspire to hook up Leia & Sabine

it's made more complicated by the fact that Actual Rebellion Things need to happen, but:

\- the Ghost spends more time around Rebellion headquarters

\- there's a certain mission debriefing that is literally next-door to the training salle where Sabine is teaching a course

\- the only 15 minutes of free time leia has away from working on duty rosters, happens to be when sabine is on lunch shift, and they do lunch together

\- a permanent intercom is set up between their two rooms, and no-one knows how to turn it off, cough cough

\- they're moving bases, and because the base isn't fully built yet, leia and sabine have to bunk together AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES

and the whole time, both sabine and leia are both thinking, "this is a great friendship that i wouldn't want to ruin by getting my feelings in the way"

Leia doesn’t have TIME for feelings - she's running a rebellion, and the people who were SUPPOSED to be running it with her are all MOSTLY DEAD

oh! most of the finances for the rebellion were originally funneled through alderaan

now that alderaan is gone, the empire has seized control of their assests. In order to fund the rebellion, they have to resort to CRIMINAL ENTERPRISES, such as SMUGGLINGand SPACE PIRACY and RIPPING OFF THE HUTT EMPIRE

that's how sabine gets in contact with ketsu onyo. And leia's like, "she can have....friends. who are hot, and think she's hot. and give each other Looks through their helmets. and it TOTALLY DOESN'T BOTH ME AT ALL I'M NOT JEALOUS SHUT YOUR FACE HAN."

and sabine's like, "this girl is great, I could totally see myself falling for ketsu....if i didn't already have a massive crush on leia."

Faking-her-death!era Sabine watching news holos reporting on the Imperial Senate, just to catch a glimpse of Leia on C-SPAN (the C stands for Coruscant, it's a holdover from the galactic republic era and the news network hasn't rebranded yet)

So Han's running jobs for the Hutt Empire, partly to fund the Rebellion, partly because if he screws up the job on behalf of the hutt empire and it pissess off Palpatine's Empire, then - boom! pit the two of 'em against each other, and it'll weaken them both. Plus, then Palpatine's imperial troops will waste energy & resources hunting down Hutt agents, which diverts attention from the actual Rebel agents blowing shit up

which is how han ends up in jabba's clutches, and synchs us back up with episode 6

and then we have a showdown between boba fett on one side, and sabine on the other, and leia in the middle while she despairs of mandalorians who think with their jetpacks

and boba fett lives, because i love him. even if he is a dick.

MEANWHILE, as the team is liberating han from jabba, they also liberate the crime lord's bank codes. it's not just a mission, it's also a heist.

at one point, sabine paints a mural of leia's face with her EXPLODING SPRAY PAINT and then it explodes in front of darth vader as a personal fuck-you

MEANWHILE - ahsoka is trapped on malachor with no spaceship (after ezra pulled her out of the portal in the world between worlds), and has NO IDEA about kanan or ezra. but she DOES eventually make her way back to sabine in time for the rebels epilogue, in order to go looking for ezra - except that sabine is slightly busy, helping rule New Alderaan with her girlfriend-slash-wife

> RJ: ezra will find his own way back home, it's like... it's like Homeward Bound.

Instead of sabine, ahsoka brings luke on her quest to find ezra. if luke wants to restart the jedi order, then he needs someone who was ACTUALLY trained by a jedi (and not a jedi's force ghost). Ahsoka would be the first person to NOT call herself a jedi...but ezra WOULD. so while they're looking for ezra, luke's working on ahsoka, trying to convice her that even if she's Not A Jedi, she still has valuable knowledge to teach younglings

on Luke And Ahsoka's Ezra-Obtaining Adventure, ahsoka spends a large part of the roadtrip talking shit and telling stories about Anakin. They bond over having complicated feelings about Anakin as a parental figure, and also as Darth Vader. Of course, force ghost Hot Young Anakin tries to butt in. they Very Obviously ignore his attempts to change the subject

also, ahsoka is probably pissed at force ghosts obi-wan and yoda

it's a buddy-cop style mission to find ezra, restart the jedi order, and possibly rehabilitate the last remaining member of the Emperor's Hand as a non-dark force user (LUKE FINDS MARA JADE AND THEY START ON A CAT-AND-MOUSE ESCAPADE ACROSS THE GALAXY)

Ahsoka looks at Leia's relationship with a mandalorian part-time bounty hunter, and luke's relationship with an assassin, and she just shakes her head. "You goddamn Skywalker, this is exactly your parents all over again."

Sabine sticks around with leia after the empire falls, to help recollect the stragglers of alderaan and settle New Alderaan

OR

she brings leia (and some of the alderaanians) back to mandalore - there ARE plenty of empty desert spaces available

it's a weird process of the two cultures becoming one, but it is also A METAPHOR

at first leia's like, "I want you here with me, because you're my people....but also, i got kinda used to not being A Princess these last few years, and you're weirding me out now"

Leia meeting the wrens! they're all expecting her to be a pacifist, a useless politician....but she has a surprisingly ruthless streak. Plus, she was a SPY - intel is her bread and butter, which is helpful for navigating the various inter-clan relationships on mandalore

sabine had the darksaber....and in legends canon, leia builds her own lightsaber....so THEY SPAR

and suddenly, FAKE DATING as a front for all the various factions of the post-empire reconstrucion.......comes up against the deadline. Now they're home, now they're 24, now they have to either shit or get off the can

sabine and leia definitely had celebratory The Empire Is Gone boning. the banged, and it was glorious, and they both told themselves that it didn't mean they were Having Emotions

So now they're on mandalore, with a budget line set aside for Sabine's Big Day, and someone starts Stirring Shit. Someone initiates the wedding procedures, and it's possibly a ploy to fuck with sabine (and keep her committed to a relationship that's publicly an open secret she DOESN'T WANT TO BE IN) or possibly a ploy to 'help' leia (one of the extra-fervent monarchists?) - either way, it's crunch time, and the wedding marches closer.

Official Line - Sabine and Leia are so happy together!

Open Secret - Neither party actually wanted this engagement, and are only together under duress from the Emperor

Secret Secret - Both Leia and Sabine actually have feelings for each other, and neither wants to dissolve the union

but like, "it's deceitful to entrap my girlfriend into becoming my wife....even though we're not really together, but i wish we were. and i have to do the right thing, and step away, and deny myself"

except that THEY'RE BOTH thinking that

and it's THE WORST

and it's a giant snarl of pining that's reciprocated but neither girl can see far enough outside her own head to REALIZE it

so then tristan meets luke, and the Little Brothers Club starts trying to set their sisters up with each other

Do they get as far as the ACTUAL WEDDING DAY before someone admits that she actually has feelings?

OR

is there a moment where leia's like, "you've already fked your death once, you're NOT ALLOWED to do it again. I need to be honest with you."

OR

does leia run away to the back woods of nowhere to govern New Alderaan, and never comes back instead of having to address her feelings?

you can't trap them in a room or put someone in incredible danger and force them to admit Feelings, because their lives are ALREADY incredible danger. All the time.

> RJ: Oh. Ohhh, I just thought of something.
> 
> dF: Oh.....that's your "Oh, this is gonna be terrible" voice.

As part of reparations during the Galactic Concordance, an empty planet is gifted as New Alderaan.

and leia has to leave, to go govern her people and get them settled

and because she doesn't have anything to bring to the table, alliance- or asset-wise, "I'm gonna let you out of this. I'm going to dissolve this union."

and then she does the job she was trained for from day one, and she governs her people

and she builds new infrastructure, and she sets the right people in place to bring New Alderaan back into the galactic economy

and she finds a replacement for herself, as a representative of new alderaan in the new galactic republic senate

and she has to stay at home, because there is So Much to be done for reconstruction - whether it’s hunting down lost artifacts sold on the black market after the destruction of alderaan, or it's finding someone who was working at space verizon and can give access to the digital archives of alderaan's universities

there's a shitton of rebuilding that leia has to do, and she can't drag sabine down into that

especially when she has nothing to offer mandalore.

right now, madalore is in a position of power, and good standing, with the galaxy at large

and leia understands that outside of the rebellion, sabine's loyalties lie with her people

> DF: how are you gonna fix this, marisa?
> 
> RJ: sabine's gonna chase her across the glaxy. sabine's gonna give her a year, so that it's past the deadline. so that when she comes to leia, it'll be on her own, and with no compulsion from the emperor

so sabine brings leia a long-lost alderaanian relic, and gives it as a courting gift

and leia's like, "My old friend"

and sabine's like, "we could be more than that. i know we were in name, but would you like to give us a try outside of that? because i've gotten to know you for the last decade, and you're a part of my life that i don't want missing."

and leia's like, "i couldn't possibly lock you into this when there's no need to appease the empire anymore. there's nothing binding you to this, and your family's not in danger anymore. there's no need for you to do this."

and sabine's like, "there is, though. because i don’t want you to not be part of my life. you're the blaster at my back. you're the fuel to my jetpack. you keep me motivated and fucking flying."

WHICH BRINGS US TO

WEDDING TIME

(by this point, they have gotten ezra back, so he can be there, and kanan's force ghost can also be there - luke and ahsoka basically pulled ezra out of the purrgil equivalent of salmon swimming upstream. They're in space alaska, having giant space-whale babies, and ezra’s like, "MY TIME HAS COME. THESE ARE MY GIANT CHARISMATIC MEGAFAUNA PEOPLE." "Time to go home, friend. Time to put pants on." Ezra's pants are off because he's basically living with the wolves, except they're hyperspace-capable space whales.)

The ghost family is at the wedding, and the rebellion family is at the wedding - it's a massive symbol of hope and moving forward.

and general reikan is like, I TOLD YOU SO, feeling so validated

and then, of course, at the wedding - fucking maul comes back and tries to cause havoc. fucking maul.

so of course the reception devolves into chaos and blasters, and leia and sabine end up BACK TO BACK and pull blasters out of their wedding outfits, but that's exactly what they love, so it's alright

Sabine moves in with Leia. Tristan takes over as heir to house wren, and sabine's like, "look. i have my ghost family, and my rebellion family, and my wren family - and now i'm going to have my organa family."

and they adopt a whole passel of war-orphan children, eventually, and it's amazing

han and lando crash their three-year anniversary party. also, han and lando's bachelorette party for leia was a disaster. this is why none of them are allowed back on six different casino planets, anymore.

THE END <3

 


End file.
